Muhammad Ali, one of MANY Fathers of Emceeing

[Richard Corey]

This was a short article I wrote for project rhyme. If you want me to write a condensed version for the timeline, just hit me up.

===============================


Ali’s influence on urban America, and thus early emcees, is readily documented. In the Beef I DVD, Kool Moe Dee recounts how party rapper Busy Bee would imitate Ali before getting on stage during emcee competitions. Other artists such as LL Cool J constantly name dropped Ali, proving his influence on the culture.

It is improbable to suggest that such a charismatic character had no effect on the budding art of emceeing. Due the proximity of hip-hop’s inception and the height of Ali’s career, it can be argued that Ali’s rhyming taunts could have been a DIRECT inspiration for emcees who rhymed witty sayings over the mic to keep the crowd going and the DJ famous.


::Conflict as a Culture::
The concept of skill-based contest spans over many facets of the African-American culture: from dancing (breaking/popping to tap dancing matches), to musicianship (Jazz, Blues spontaneous challenges), to hip-hop. Hip-hop battling is most evident in the culture's art of emceeing, where two emcees will participate in a contest to see who can clown each other the most while rhyming.

This is a direct descendent of the childhood game of “playing the dozens” (also called snapping, joning or “cutting up” on someone). The dozens consist of a series of back-and-forth one-line jokes that insult your target for the amusement of your audience. The loser of the match is usually the person who gets offended first. There was one man who became famous for this form of verbal battery, and who popularized putting The Dozens in Rhyme form: Muhammad Ali.


::The Lyrical Dozens::
It can be argued that Muhammad Ali is one of the primary fathers of emceeing, and as a result battle rhyming. Because of his stature and fame, Ali made famous in the Black community the lyrical form of the Dozens. Many times, during interviews or press conferences, Ali would perform his “poems” (as they were called at the time, but were more akin to battle verses) for the audience, much to the chagrin of his opponents who often times were present.

Ali was famous for his one-line jokes and insults:

I’ll beat him so bad he’ll need a shoehorn to put his hat on!

If Sonny Liston dreams he can beat me he better wake up and apologize.

But it was when he put these one-liners into rhyme-form that we get a better idea of how he helped influence the idea of emcee battling. Here is the entire “poem” Ali wrote about Sonny Liston, before their boxing match. Notice the elements of emceeing that are still evident today, such as hyperbole (exaggerated claims) and wordplay.

Clay comes out to meet Liston and Liston starts to retreat
If he goes back any further…He'll be in a ringside seat
Clay swings with a left and Clay swings with a right
Look at young Cassius as he carries the fight
Liston keeps backing, but there's not enough room
It's a matter of time till Clay lowers the boom
Now Clay swings with a right, what a beautiful swing
and the punch knocks the Bear clear out of the ring
Liston's still rising! The ref wears a frown
For he can't start counting…till Sonny comes down!!
Now Liston disappears from view, the crowd is getting frantic
But our radar stations pick him up, he's over the Atlantic!
Who would have thought when they came to the fight
That they'd witness the launch…of a human satellite?
Yes, the crowd did not dream, when they laid down their money
That they would see a total eclipse of the Sun-y!

Ali’s influence doesn’t end there. He was also significant in the idea of the “self-props” aspect of emceeing and battle rapping.

I done wrestled with an alligator, done tussled with a whale
I hancuffed lighting… thrown thunder in jail
yesterday I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick
I’m so mean…I make medicine sick.

::First Recorded Battle Tracks
Ali was also one of the first to put his "battle rhymes" on record. Although at the time, he was more similar to The Last Poets then he was to Nas, the idea of recording and selling rhyming taunts and battle poems was unheard of. The album did not do too well, however it can still be purchased on Amazon.

The album includes Ali ranting and rhyming in front of a live audience about his greatness and how he would destroy Sonny Liston. At the time, Ali had not won the championship, but his charisma was overflowing nonetheless.


::One of Many 'Fathers'::

To say Ali is one of the main contributors to emceeing is one thing, but to say he is THE ONLY father, is maybe too far. There are other influences, notably Dolemite, James Brown's stage presence, Richard Pryor's honesty as well as contributions from those such as Malcom X, Church Pastors and Jazz muscisians. But Ali's place in hip hop is unique in that his influence is so obvious to the point where every emcee, at some point, has fought to be considered the Greatest Of All Time.

[compay]

Originally Posted by Richard Corey

This was a short article I wrote for project rhyme. If you want me to write a condensed version for the timeline, just hit me up.

This is excellent stuff. For the timeline we're looking for really short entries though... perhaps what we could do is distill the essentials down to a short teaser paragraph, and give it a date... perhaps just "mid-1960's?"

Then we can link it to your original article on PR for further reading. The goal for the timeline is mostly to link to content, rather than provide the content on the timeline itself. I don't want to get too into writing full articles on the timeline because then we may end up just recreating what's on Wikipedia with a lot of the entries.

This will also be better for the contributors because it's a way for them to drive traffic to their own websites.

[Richard Corey]

coolness...

[theory]

you should do that as a blog post off the home page. It'll get way more visibility there.

-Theory

[TheLiquid]

Honestly, I didn't know any of this about Ali... Hardly follow boxing though.

Interesting article to say the least..